Andrew Spurrier
Tuesday, October 14, 2008
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Paris (Lloyd's List) - FRENCH lawyers charged with the defence of six Somalis accused of piracy have applied to have the proceedings against them quashed on the grounds that they were arrested illegally. The six were captured ashore in Somalia by French forces following the liberation of the CMA CGM-owned cruise ship Le Ponant in April.
They were subsequently brought back to France and charged with kidnapping and sequestration as part of an organised band.
The French prosecution service claimed at the time that there had been no “irregularities” in the treatment of the men but their defence lawyers now say that French forces had no authority to take them into custody.
“We contest the competence of the people who arrested them,” said one of the lawyers.
The six had been arrested on Somali soil in conditions which had not yet been elucidated, he said, and they had not been notified that they were being taken into custody until after they had arrived in France.
He pointed, too, to the absence of an extradition treaty between France and Somalia, which he said should have made extradition of the Somalis impossible.
The six, aged between 25 and 40, were captured by helicopter-borne commandos about one hour after the release of the Le Ponant and its 30-strong crew on April 11.
According to French reports at the time, two were recognised by crew members of the Le Ponant as having been among the group of pirates which captured the vessel.
Three others were suspected of having served as guards of the cruise vessel and its crew, while the sixth man was said to have been at the wheel of the four-wheel drive vehicle in which the six were travelling at the time French commandos intervened.
French troops fired warning and interception shots in the course of the operation to arrest the men but claimed not to have fired directly at them. Only about half the group targeted by French forces was captured, according to the French army. The others apparently succeeded in escaping.
Source: Lloyd's List, Oct 14, 2008